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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23096875">the void</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/yutayutoda/pseuds/yutayutoda'>yutayutoda</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, M/M, NCT Dream - Freeform, Paranormal, WayV - Freeform, ghost - Freeform, markhyuck, nct - Freeform, side Norenmin, side johnten</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:55:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,643</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23096875</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/yutayutoda/pseuds/yutayutoda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU where Mark is a ghost and Haechan is trying to discover what happened to him, while dealing with the problems that lie ahead.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. stardust in his eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Donghyuck always was a lucky guy. He lived with a loving family, had amazing friends, was good at school and talented in what he loved the most : singing and dancing. Yeah, he lived the almost-perfect-and-boring life. That was just before he met Mark, their meeting was sudden, fierce, impactful.</p><p>Just like every morning, he was singing in front of the mirror, in his bathroom, holding his toothbrush like a mic. He was practicing his notes and his breathing. He always had this habit to close his eyes, in order to feel at best what his soothing voice was conveying. He let himself be carried by his own voice. Then he opened his eyes, in order to watch his expression because if he were to be singer or an idol, he had to maintain a nice expression. At that right moment, he overview an unknown figure behind him, he didn't quite had a chance to catch any details or features of the body behind him, he just screamed loudly. When he turned around, there was nothing. He may have had a hallucination, nothing to worry about.</p><p>Well, that would have been the case if the same incident had not happened three days in a row. Each time, he spotted the same vague and foggy shape when he looked at mirrors, window's reflections and so on. Haechan suffered from insomnia during several days, feeling obliged to sleep with lights on. He had a lot of time to think about what happened and he swore he definitely saw something, someone. At first he was scared as hell, I mean, who wouldn't be ? His house was haunted by a spirit but he was, apparently, the only one to have noticed questionable things. He thought he had gone mad. His whole family considered him insane, which didn't reassure him. He never ever talked about that accident to anyone again. Maybe it was his fertile imagination playing tricks on him, he thought.</p><p>Later on, the tanned boy decided to try something. By trying something, you can deduct summoning the shape. He did some researchs with doubtful sources -like Wikihow-, during his sleepless nights. For this spirit session, he gathered an ouija board purchased online, several bottles containing exotic herbs and unidentified liquids, as well as a silver dagger that he bought to an old lady (he later realised that it was a poor imitation). The boy also brought a dowsing crystal.</p><p>He waited for 3:33am since it's the time when the veil between the two worlds is the thinnest, allowing the spirits to cross over easier and interact with the humans, at least that's what he read. Haechan started his spiritual session by burning sage incense in order to remove negative energies from the room and dissuade any unwanted visitors -malevolent spirits among others-. He has almost choked because he hadn't opened any windows and burned far too much sage, how clever.</p><p>Hyuck began with the retro lookish ouija board. He followed all the steps of his websites and waited for 5 minutes before throwing it at the other end of his bedroom, in a flash of anger : it was a great failure. He cursed for a few seconds and then mixed some of the herbs with the blue and the grayish liquids in a marble bowl. All he was doing was a huge cliché and again, that was a huge failure. All he managed to do was to dirty his carpet and make his clothes and room stink even more.</p><p>His last attempt was the most dangerous and stupid one, but he was desperate to make the shape reappear. He was stubborn guy, it was a fact but he was also inquisitive. He wanted to confirm that he wasn't mad yet and that spirits were a real thing. The young boy grabbed his cellphone in order to check the protocol of his paranomal experience. He had to soak the blade's dagger with fresh blood and the only possibility open to him was to cut himself, because it was the only source of fresh blood "available" to him. He tried to be cautious, his aim was to have a result, a proof, anything, and absolutely not to hurt himself.</p><p>When he was about to direct the dagger towards its index finger, he saw on the blade the reflection of the supposed ghost, and let it fall on the carpet, the sound echoing throughout Haechan's bedroom. He then heard an unfamiliar and tiny voice.</p><p>"Are you mad?" the spirit asked.</p><p>Yeah, he was indeed mad, he definitely heard a voice coming from the dagger, and he wasn't neither drunk nor high. He really wished it was the case.</p><p>"Oh my Jesus, are you deaf of just dumb?"</p><p>Hyuck's brain took time to realize and so on, process. He wasn't dreaming, because this annoying voice was real. He hadn't gone mad, for the time being.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>It was really cliché, but since the arrival of this disruptive element, the boy's life had taken another turn. He was experiencing something special and abnormal and so incredible. His life had taken another turn because his daily life had been disrupted, shaken, shattered. It was no longer about him and his quiet life.</p><p>He had been doing everything he could for a few days to make this seemingly harmless spectrum reappear. He claimed his name was Mark, but why would a ghost need a first name? What particularly disturbed Haechan was that Mark seemed more human than spiritual because Mark seemed to be covered with memories of an old human life. The more the ghost appears, the more the two young men gradually learned about each other.</p><p>Mark's reflection appeared mostly in the mirrors, so the young man placed several of them in his room, so that he could feel that his new friend could move around just like a "normal" person. A normal and real person. It's as if Donghyuck has forgotten the meaning of the word. In the end, being normal was just a social construct, but Mark was more than a body envelope, Mark was more, Mark was a spirit, he was omnipresent.</p><p>To be honest, Haechan was still terrified of being the cause of all this. What if he was only in a long lethargy to alleviate his boredom, the emptiness he felt? What if it wasn't real, what if it was all a figment of his imagination? That would explain why Mark appeared to him when he needed him most. It would also explain why he was perfect in Haechan's eyes. The young man felt bad about the idea, which was more than plausible. The ghost felt the uneasiness that the human felt, and decided to take matters into his own hands. That night, Mark appeared at the same time they had agreed upon beforehand. Donghyuck wasn't there this time.</p><p>Haechan had decided it was time to have a serious talk with his best friends. He was anxious to take the plunge because no one had yet written a tutorial on how to tell your best friends that you've seen a ghost, talked to it, and taken a liking to it?</p><p>He decided to ask them to meet him at the local cafe. The first to arrive was Jeno. The latter came and sat down in front of the dark-haired man whose legs were shaking. The black-haired man's smile disappeared immediately and was replaced by a worried pout.</p><p>"What happened? Is everything all right? Your legs are shaking..." worried his friend.</p><p><span>He didn't have time to answer because his two other friends were already on their way to their table. It took Renjun and Jaemin a little longer to realize that their friend wasn't doing so well. </span>Haechan explained everything to them, in every possible and unimaginable detail, and when he had finished, there was a heavy silence. The silence lasted a few seconds before the smallest of the three spoke:</p><p>"You're kidding, right? I really hope you're joking and even if you are, I'm really scared for your mental state."</p><p>“I’m not kidding Jun ! Don't you see how I'm mortified that this whole thing is true?”</p><p>His face bore an expression of a mixture of puzzlement and mistrust. It was already too much for Haechan, he didn't want to hear any more, he didn't want to know any more, he didn't want any more. He got up without saying anything, took his things and ignored his friends' protests.</p><p>The young man felt mostly disgust and disappointment. No one was trying to understand. In the end, who could understand his situation?</p><p>Mark could.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. there's no more stardust</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Will he still trust him and hold his hand ?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I promise the next update will be longer than this one haha</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The way back to his home was very monotonous and depressing because many thoughts filled his mind. Feeling disappointment and disgust from family was one thing, but feeling the same way about your best friends was quite another. Who could he trust? Who could believe him, understand him, feel sorry for him? Mark could. </p><p>It wasn't like he had to. Mark was very sweet with Haechan, they talked a lot, they listened to each other, too. The two boys had an egalitarian, bonding relationship, at least that's what he hoped.</p><p>He was only looking forward to one thing and that was to go home and talk with Mark, to spend his evening confiding in him, crying but also laughing because Mark was an attentive ear but also an excellent joker, he always managed to put a smile back on his face.</p><p>When he arrived home, he went straight upstairs to his room and put his phone on mute so he would not hear any more sounds of message notifications and calls from his friends. He needed to clear his head and he wouldn't do that with them, it was a mistake on his part. He would wait a few days avoiding his friends at the faculty and then pretend it never happened, this was Haechan's most plausible solution to get out of this situation.</p><p>He took a quick shower before sitting on his bed, staring at the mirror that was within reach of his bed. Time passed and there was no news of Mark. The schedule of their meetings being more than outdated, the dark-haired man asked himself a thousand questions, he didn't want to be abandoned by his only hope even if it was selfish. Seconds flew by, minutes rolled by, hours passed and still no news from the spectrum and Haechan had never felt so left alone in his entire life. He felt terribly lonely and he absolutely had to find something to do about it, he didn't want his despair to get any worse. He decided to hang out on Netflix, but it wasn't any better, he wasn't even focused on his show because his obsessive thoughts were overwhelming him. So he decided to fight his demons directly. He researched to see if he could find any experiences similar to his own, not only to reassure him because he was afraid he would end up insane, but also to look for evidence that would make his speech more legitimate and less fanciful.</p><p>His research was not very fruitful because the sources and accounts seemed far too dubious. After a good hour, he was reading testimonies on a forum that seemed more or less drinkable (well, after that he had more choice) and he stopped on the testimony of someone who looked much too much like his situation: the appearance of a spectrum in surfaces, mainly mirrors. The rest of his story more or less corresponded to what he had experienced so far. Haechan was lost in the story of the person behind the nickname "Chittapphrrr" and when he had finished reading, he read the comments of the other pseudonyms in this forum and they were all vulgar and mean, calling "Chittaphrrr" either a liar or mentally ill. Haechan was more than disgusted, it reminded him of the judgment he had undergone a few days ago with his family and a few hours ago with his friends, although obviously it had been much less violent. What was important at the time was that he absolutely had to find a way to contact this "Chittaphrrr". Impossible to find a way to contact him via the forum, no information was specified in his user profile, nothing. It was absolutely not the time to despair so he thought, again and again. This nickname was quite atypical, so it should be easy to find something. Haechan logged on to his Twitter account and searched, neither one nor two, he came across the profile of a certain Ten Chittaphon. On his biography was "Born to be an idol" as well as the mention that he was taking the same course as Haechan at the university. Other words were written in a language that Donghyuck couldn't decipher, maybe in Thai. He didn't hesitate any longer and decided to follow him. He sighed when he saw that he could not send him a private message for the moment, he had to wait for him to follow him back. It could only be him, that name was unusual. He hoped with all his heart that this was the case, they had to talk to each other. Haechan closed the lid on his computer, his body and head filled with hope.</p><p>It was getting late and still no word from Mark, what was he doing? Had something happened to him? Or maybe he didn't want to see him anymore? He was asking himself so many questions and it was literally eating him up. He decided that he probably needed to sleep because he had nothing else to do and he didn't want to suffer from his obsessive thoughts, again. It took him more than an hour to fall asleep because once again his head was full of too much information. When he closed his eyes, the ghost appeared in the reflection of a mirror near the window, he watched Haechan sleep peacefully, his heart tightened at the thought of having abandoned him when he needed him especially in that hard moment.</p><p>Mark had decided never to reappear again, at least without the brown man noticing. He had made this difficult choice for a very specific reason: Donghyuck was already very attached to him and Mark was realistic, he knew that nothing more could happen because Mark would remain forever stuck on the other side of the mirror, he would be nothing more than a reflection. So he would watch over Haechan until he recovered from this situation, because sooner or later he would understand that he would never come back to listen to him sing again, to listen to him complain about his lessons, about his family, about gaining weight, about missing a hair dye five years ago. Mark was determined, he would never come back because he was no longer human, he had nothing to do in his life. It was only for his own good that he had made this decision. It hurt Mark very much because he had grown fond of Haechan, he had learned to love that stubborn mulehead, to love his flaws, to love him. But Mark couldn't love Haechan because Mark was nothing, he was much less than stardust in this parallel universe, he was condemned to stay there, to wander, unlike Donghyuck who was young, who had a whole life ahead of him, who had hardly discovered anything about life yet. One day he will finish his studies, realize his dream of being an idol, meet someone good, get married, perhaps have children. He will live a human life, disappointments will multiply as well as good things. And Mark will definitely not be part of his world. After all, he was nothing more than stardust, he was just a small pass in Haechan's future long life.</p><p> </p>
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